Tagged Whole Foods

Sixty-five percent of adults in Georgia are clinically obese or overweight. News flash: that’s over half of us. That’s getting dangerously close to three quarters of us. Yikes. We [Americans] are as unhealthy as we have ever been. Obesity and chronic disease run rampant, especially here in the South, where—let’s face it—we kind of love to eat. We do our best to make smart food choices and exercise, which we can’t always be perfect at given our hectic schedules and lives on the go. So what do we do? Is there an easier way to prevent the diseases that so often come with our modern lifestyles? Food=Medicine >>

Need a little kick in the pants to take charge of your life and your health? Check out Steven Rankin’s story. While serving as a sheriff’s deputy in south Georgia in 2006, he made what he thought was a routine traffic stop late at night. While simply trying to tell a driver to turn his music down, Steven was shot point blank in the face, the bullet destroying the right side of his jaw and fracturing his C1 vertebrae. It remained lodged in his spine for four years and led to a whole slew of health problems that his doctors wouldn’t acknowledge could be attributed to, you know, a bullet being stuck in his neck.

Talk to any nutritionist and they’ll tell you to watch out for processed foods in your diet, but not everyone understands exactly what that means. Obviously, things like Froot Loops, Coke, and meat that’s breaded and molded into dinosaur shapes count as processed foods. But you’re reading a health and wellness publication right now, so let’s go ahead and assume that the majority of your current diet doesn’t consist of tubes of raw cookie dough and boxed mac ‘n cheese (please say we’re right about this) and get more specific. What about things like frozen vegetables, canned beans, or juice? Are they “processed”? Yep. Simply put, any food that has been altered from its natural state is processed food — but not all processed foods are created equal. More on assigning labels, shopping the perimeter (not THAT Perimeter), and pronounceable ingredients >>

Take a class this week! Whether it’s yoga, cooking, nutrition, or mushroom growing (yes, really), this is the perfect week to take your knowledge and body to the next level. Here’s what’s happening in Atlanta…This week’s top picks >>

Atlanta is chock full o’ amazing health and wellness events. How’s a person supposed to keep up? Fear not! We’ve got your back. Every Monday, WellATL will bring you a handy-dandy list of the week’s finest options. If you’d like to submit something fun and fitness-y for consideration, shoot an email to events@wellatl.com. And now, behold, seven days of awesome…